ADA TOWNSHIP, MI — One could be forgiven for thinking that Ada, the cradle of European settlement in West Michigan, ought to be bigger than it is today.

Built on fertile soil near the confluence of the Grand and Thornapple rivers, the village itself — aside from a large nearby corporate complex — is not significantly more developed than it was in 1878, when local writer Franklin Everett labeled it a “snug little place.”

But “snug” is likely not the future Ada's largest early land owner had in mind when he bought 1,000 acres along the Thornapple River in 1833.

“Lucius Lyon thought Ada would be the place,” said Kristen Wildes, secretary for the Ada Historical Society. “He thought it would be bigger than Grand Rapids.”

Today, much of that property is owned by Amway Corp., which built its sprawling company headquarters on river bottomland once cultivated by Native Americans and fur trader Rix Robinson, Kent County’s first permanent settler.

While Robinson is considered by most to be the village’s founding father, it was Lyon who had perhaps the greatest impact on the future of a village that, despite having a head start on nearby Grand Rapids, was nonetheless destined to remain a snug little place with one foot in the past.

Lucius Lyon

Michigan: Undervalued frontier land

“You will recollect when I first saw you I was confident that lands at the Rapids, at the mouth of the Thorn Apple and mouth of the Maple river would some day be valuable,” wrote Lucius Lyon after his 1833 land purchases in sections 27 and 34 of what would become Ada Township, as well as purchases in what would become Grand Rapids and Lyons in Ionia County.

“I have not changed my opinion in regard to any of these points.”

Lyon’s letter was to a man named Arthur Bronson, of New York, a key player in the development of Ada although it’s unknown whether he ever actually set foot in the village.

Bronson Street in Ada, which runs parallel to the railroad, is named for the man.

Bronson was a wealthy land speculator who invested in frontier real estate through agents such as Lyon, a government surveyor who often got first eyeballs on prime lands during his travels.

Lyon first visited Ada, which he called “the Forks,” while surveying in 1826, a trip during which he bought supplies from Robinson, set up in a trading post near the river since 1821.

As a speculator, Lyon sometimes bought land outright. Other times, he would organize a company and retain a share. In some instances, Lyon would make purchases from early settlers occupying the land, gaining preemption rights to large tracts.

Due to an inaccurate 1815 survey report, choice Michigan land like the Ada tract was “undervalued,” Lyon wrote in 1822.

“Michigan has been considered but little better than the waste land of the United States, but when the country was explored and surveyed ... it was found to possess as good a soil and greater advantages than the famed Ohio.”

In 1834, Lyon signed contracts with Arthur Bronson’s father, Isaac, to invest for the family in Old Northwest Territory lands, which included present-day Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.

Lyon bought valuable property in what became Grand Rapids, Lyons and Ada from Bronson and began constructing improvements like the Grand River canal that once paralleled what’s now Monroe Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids.

'A snug little place'

Located near the confluence of the Grand and Thornapple Rivers, the village of Ada had a head start on the rest of West Michigan in terms of pioneer settlement, yet has remained a 'snug little place' while other villages of the era have grown into larger cities.

• The village is named for settler Sidney Smith’s daughter, Mary Ada Smith, born in 1837, the first non-Native American child born in the village. Smith convinced Lucius Lyon to adopt the name Ada rather than Lyon’s preference for “Appleton.” Prior, the area was referred to as “the Forks,” due to the nearby confluence of the Grand and Thornapple rivers.

• For its first few decades, Ada was a farming community that was largely self-sustaining. When the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad came to town in 1854, other businesses sprouted up to support travelers. A dam was built on the Thornapple River in 1926.

In Ada, Lyon saw potential for settlers and began prodding Bronson to finance construction of a saw mill. He also sent for a couple extended family members living in New York, brothers Tory and Sidney Smith, who arrived in early 1836 and soon built a tavern near the mouth of the river.

Lyon, meanwhile, grew busy with a political career in Washington. He was elected a non-voting delegate to the U.S. Congress for the Michigan Territory, serving 1833 to 1834. He was later elected as a U.S. Senator in November 1835 and served to 1839, though Michigan's admittance into the Union in 1837.

He was heavily indebted to Bronson, however, and defaulted on those debts when a financial crisis hit the nation in 1837, due in part to speculative lending practices in western states and a collapsing land bubble.

According to “The Investment Frontier” by John D. Haeger, Lyon lost most of his properties in Michigan to Bronson in 1839.

By this time, Ada Township had organized, and Sidney Smith was elected supervisor in 1838. A bridge over the Thornapple River replaced a ferry the year prior, and Ada was described as having a post office and several inhabitants in an 1838 Gazetteer brief.

Development was hampered, though, by the lack of clear title to the village land.

Before the recession struck, most of Lyon’s land transactions had been based on credit. Settlers paid Lyon installments for lots bought with small down payments. In turn, Lyon bought land with personal bonds, mortgages and promised payments. He also pledged his property and credit so friends might borrow money, wrote Haeger.

In November 1844, Arthur Bronson died and his estate was left to an infant heir.

“This left trustees of the estate in control of a great deal of property in the town on the Thornapple River and brought the progress in Ada to a standstill until titles could be cleared,” wrote historian Kit Lane in the Lucius Lyon biography “An Eminently Useful Citizen.”

With lot owners in Ada unable to get clear title to the land, “the focus changed to Grand Rapids,” said Wildes. The title confusion lasted roughly 20 years, according to oral histories on record at the Averill Historical Museum in Ada.

“Nothing else really happened until the train came though in the 1850s.”

COMPLETE SERIES

• Monday: What Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos say about their vision for improving their hometown, and what the corporate giant's role will be in the planning process.

• Tuesday: Hear from Village of Ada business owners whose locations could be remodeled or torn down, depending on the outcome of the redevelopment plan.

• Wednesday: How similar public-private partnerships have transformed other West Michigan communities.

• Thursday: Join the conversation when a panel of Amway and Ada officials talk about the Village's redevelopment and answer your questions about the upcoming planning process.

• Friday: Amway's chief of staff, shares what happened behind-the-scenes of the corporation's recent $12 million purchase of Ada land, and why Amway may not be done with its purchases.

• Today: Despite its prime location, Ada became "snug little place" instead of major city in West Michigan after early settlers' development initiatives stalled.